Penny's Blog
by jamie55
Summary: Billy finds out that Penny had a blog. Set after Act 3 of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.
1. Chapter 1

Title: Penny's Blog

Author: jamie55

Rating: PG

Disclaimer: I don't own Dr Horrible and I did not come up with the lyrics for "Everything You Ever", more commonly known as the last song in act III, partially quoted in the beginning.

Summary: Billy finds out Penny had a blog.

A/N: Set after act III, so if you don't feel I've got a good Penny voice say so 'cause I have plans and they do not include this being a one shot. Spoilers for all three acts, huge spoilers for act III. Also this was made for by violetbluebells as a belated B-day fic. violetbluebells also did a fantastic job beta'ing it for me.

Word count: 1080 (with the lyrics for "Everything you Ever")

* * *

_Now the nightmare's real_

_Now Dr. Horrible is here_

_To make you quake with fear_

_To make the whole world kneel_

_(Everything you ever…)_

_And I won't feel_

_A thing_

Billy sat in front of his computer screen, the camera was still recording he reminded himself. He turned it off, wasn't even quite sure why he had it on. Now that he was in the Evil League of Evil he couldn't risk sharing anything with the world.

_Beep_

Moist had sent him yet another email; he hasn't been answering his phone. Most of the calls and other emails were fan/hate mail from people he didn't know or care too much about. He ignored it and closed the page before slumping back down in his seat.

He was fine. After all this time he finally got into the Evil League of Evil, he was going to be able to change things now. It was everything he ever…

"_No, that's a lie."_ He told himself after a long blink.

Opening a new web page Billy pushed those thoughts aside as he directed his page to Google and hesitated for a moment before typing in the only thing he really cared for. He knew he shouldn't, he knew it was too late and there was nothing he could do. Besides he was living the dream... Wasn't he?

No, he thought as he clicked the search button, no this was a nightmare. One he kept waiting to wake up from, so that tomorrow he could walk into that Laundromat and see her smiling face. He would give it all up if only he could...

He blinked forcing down that feeling. Hope. Hope was worthless now. There was no hope. Not now.

The usual results for her name came up, less than 500 results, she deserved more. Some sites didn't even know her full name. He had been able to get through four pages so far. He went to the next page of results which he had yet to look at.

The first link was for a Captain Hammer fan site, abandoned now that Dr. Horrible had defeated him. They had an old article, made before _that _day, about how Hammer had a new girlfriend, how she doesn't eat meat, works with the homeless, and how it's _so romantic_ that they're dating. There were also some cruel remarks about her. The Hammer "Groupie" apparently had a problem with her. Billy moved on to the next link.

It was for a blogging site, the same kind of video site that he uses- well _used_ to use, he corrected himself. Probably someone from that crowd who did a blog about that day. After all he did tell them to spread the word, take a pic, do a blog; now he wished they didn't do everything he said. It was painful to watch, but he had to...

He clicked and as the page loaded his eyes widened and he straightened to attention. The title - which for some reason he didn't read correctly before - was written in soft bold blue letters with calm and peaceful font:

Penny's Blog.

His mouth dried and he was momentarily stunned, but he recovered and clicked on the first video.

_Click_

"Hello." A red-headed girl said smiling. He couldn't believe what he was seeing, _it's Penny_.

Penny, the girl from the laundry mat; the girl who's smile could brighten his darkest of days (i.e. that time Captain Hammer gave him an atomic wedgie, and on Christmas Day too!). The girl of his dreams, the girl he knew so little about, the girl he learned so much from. The girl who he…

"Uhmm..." she looked hesitantly at the screen in front of her as the camera continued to record.

"So I got this thing.." she pointed to the small camera in front of her, "..for my birthday. I didn't even ask for it, but my uncle thought that should start a blog. Said 'everyone's doing it, it's fun. You'll make new friends.'" She made a face mimicking a strange voice and rolling her eyes. "No offense but I have friends, who I have met." Billy's mouth still hung open as he tried to not blink too hard so as to not miss a moment; however he couldn't help but smile at her reasoning, her loveable affection for human contact. And yet there she was; blogging despite her arguments.

"Anyways, it was kind of thoughtful. He said he'd watch it, that it would help him know what's going on in my life." She smiled weakly and nodded as if agreeing with herself and took in a deep breath before exhaling a sigh and letting her eyes drift to the side out of the camera's view. She quickly turned back to the camera and continued still unsure of what she was doing making a blog.

"I- I'm really not sure what to do with this, what to say. I kind of have a hard time believing some people do this on a regular basis. What do they talk about? I guess I could research it or something. I still got two hour before my shift starts.

"Alright then I guess that's all for blog 1. That's kind of an impersonal title, 'blog 1'…" She pondered this a few seconds before saying her ending her first blog, which was title 'Blog 1: My first blog'.

"Bye, bye."

_Click_

No, no, no. There had to be more, there _had_ to be. His eyes searched the page furiously until he saw what he was looking for. There was more.

He let out a breath of air as relief filled his system.

First things first, he downloaded all her videos, pictures, everything he could get, he did. He couldn't risk having the site close down or something equally as disastrous happening and he couldn't lose her, well what was left of her.

_*ring*_

His cell phone rang, which was weird because he could have sworn he turned it off. Looking at the name he saw that it was from the ELE. He can't avoid them forever; after all he was a member now. He answers the call and hears Bad Horse's henchmen sing:

_The Evil League of Evil has news to give to you_

_But you were absent from the meetings this afternoon_

_And so he'd like to see you for reasons you'll know soon_

_Right now's not good, But later's fine_

_Come by today at 5 to 9_


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: I had a huge speech but it draged on so here are the finer points to it: I am sorry it took so long to update. ff people seemed way more interested in this than LJ people - no offence - so thanks to all suporters. I am really sorry. My beta kinda vanished after I sent this to her in January.. Seems she hasn't been online in a while..(her journal is like dead.) Anyways more to come, way faster, *i oath it*

A/N/N: Now beta'ed by donteatacowman

* * *

"Terrific." Looking at the clock, Billy saw he had a less than a half hour before the League's private cab would be over to pick him up. He could spend it working on the freeze ray or rebuilding the death ray. He gulped, pushing those thoughts away. There was only one thing he wanted to do.

Blog 2: Detergent and Caring Hands

The pretty red head turned on the camera and sat back in her chair.

"Hi," she, less than cheerfully, said. Her shirt was stained with a large red smudge and her expression bore that which only a very long day could create. "So I guess you could see I've had a pretty bad day. There was a commotion at the shelter today and we were serving spaghetti and I tried to stop it and..." She looked down at her now tarnished shirt. "Well, it didn't go so well." She smiled, the same smile, Billy thought, as when they talked about jobs and she cheered him up.... 'Now I could picture it very well'. But that was before, now she was...

"Which means that I'm gonna have to go to the laundromat tomorrow, on a Monday. It's not my usual laundry day. Usually I go on Wednesdays and Saturdays; it fits my schedule at the homeless shelter and at work better." Billy almost smirked; he used to do his laundry on Mondays, until that day. The day he first saw Penny and first felt kind of sick. He went to the laundry mat every day after that until he figured out her schedule.

"Oh, I haven't talked about the homeless shelter yet. Okay, I volunteer at the Caring Hands Homeless Shelter - it's an organization which works to help the homeless of the city. We have a building downtown which serves food, has a place to get a shower, helps with resumes and there are a few beds upstairs too. It's not much though," she shrugged before quickly changing subjects.

"I checked and I'm out of fabric softener and detergent too. What are the chances?" She gave the web cam a quick smile, her thoughts drifting elsewhere. "So I need to get some more ... detergent ... before..." A gentle melody began to play (the same melody as "My Freeze Ray").

"Laundry Day,

Washing clothes,

Colours here,

Delicates.

It's the best,

time of week,

to clean these,

and undies

With detergent I will clean, the dirt.

With detergent I will clean the stains that mark my clothes that;

Tell the tale,

Tale of how,

How my life,

Is so far.

Not the best;

Hasn't been;

At least not since –

Never mind.

With detergent I will clean

The slate.

It's got soap and all sorts of good kind of smelly stuff

I just wish pain would wash away,

Is that really too much to ask?

Some strength and courage or a pass

We all need help sometime or other

And need someone to care."

Billy watched. He watched the girl of his dreams sing – although at the moment she was doing a small dance, bobbing her head along the beat – about how she wished she had somebody. He swallowed, not willing himself to close his eyes for a moment. Why hadn't he spoken up when he had a chance?...

"That's the deal,

Cleaning rules,

Takes away

any mess,

With detergent I will clean..." She stopped singing suddenly, turning around and waving to someone off screen she had just noticed. "Oh hey!" She turned back to her computer screen and turned the camera off, cutting off the connection and allowing the video to go black.

Billy was left staring at the screen. He closed his eyes, thinking back to that day, to Penny. It was all his fault – and Hammer's - he should have talked to her, he should have told her, he should have... he should have done so much...

It didn't matter anymore. Penny was dead. He was the newest member of the Evil League of Evil. He couldn't...

Glancing up to the clock once more, Billy saw he had eight minutes to get ready. He sighed and forced himself away from Penny – well away from Penny's blog – in order to change. He got dressed and left the house a few minutes after his private ELE cab had arrived by to pick him up.


	3. Chapter 3

Part 3

Beta by the awesome donteatacowman

A/N: So I'm sorry – again – that it took so long. On the other hand: Penny's Blog has been awarded "The Evil Laugh in Progress Award" aka "Best WIP Fan Fave" at LJ's own horrible_awards. So THANK YOU! (it still makes me happy) And since I know you are reading this... I DEMAND YOU REVIEW! (I know I am a cruel writer. Making you wait so long and then asking for comments... then again you are still reading...)

* * *

The driver was not very talkative; in fact, Billy didn't even know what he looked like – not that it mattered, but it was a long drive. Billy used this time to observe the city; nothing had really changed, not for the better. Hammer was still in therapy – wuss – but the LAPD had coaxed him into helping them out, if you could call it helping. Last week he destroyed two cars, blew up the bank across the street, and sent nearly a million dollars flying through the air, but he did stop the robbery at a drug store.

The car came to a stop, trusting Billy forward; his head hit against the back of the front seat, causing his goggles to shift out of place. A small click sound, made by the door unlocking, was the only signal the driver gave him to announce they had arrived. Billy rubbed his jaw and took a deep breath. Time to get to work. Pulling down his maladjusted goggles, Billy stepped out of the car.

He took large, commanding steps in the poorly lit garage and made his way to the elevator. The elevator was quite small, allowing only enough room for one person to stand – Bad Horse was rumoured to have his own private elevator with a helicopter pad. Inside a silence resided, it would have been a dreadfully awkward ride if it were big enough to fit too many evil doers. (Villains in a tiny and crowded elevator was not a preferable situation.) It took him a minute to remember to press the button for the third floor. He tried to keep his mind as clear as possible.

He was Dr. Horrible. He was an evil villain. He was in the Evil League of Evil. He was a genius - an evil genius. He was going to change the world. He was going to talk to Bad Horse. Bad Horse was... well he was a bad horse. Come to think of it, he was pretty awful at picking an alias. His was much better. 'Course Bad Horse did have a better evil laugh...

Billy shook his head and tried again.

He was Dr. Horrible. He was in the Evil League of Evil. He was going to change the world – because it needs changing. He –

The bell went off and the elevator doors opened. Dr. Horrible walked out and into the corridor. A few people – some were henchmen/women while others were clerks – went by but for the most part it was deserted. There were doors on either side, each with a members name on it; at the end of the hall, on the biggest door, was one marked "Bad Horse". Taking on one last breath, Dr. Horrible came to the door and opened it. Inside was a secretary. (To be fair he was really a henchman, but someone had to do the paper work.)

"Name?" He asked looking up from the computer screen.

"Doctor Horrible."

"Right, your meetings been pushed to Jefferson. His office should be right out the door." The moustached man then returned to his computer screen, leaving Dr. Horrible to sigh and shrug and return to the hall.

Fake Thomas Jefferson, though his office was slightly smaller, seemed much busier than Bad Horse. His secretary (henchman) was typing furiously, unaware of the new presence. Dr Horrible coughed in an attempt to make himself known. It didn't work.

"I was told I had a meeting with Fake Thomas Jefferson."

"He doesn't like it when folks call him that. Try 'Mr. Jefferson,'" he said without looking up, focussed on his work.

"'Mr. Jefferson'?" Dr. Horrible said puzzled.

"He'll be with you in a moment," the man, clothed in the fashion of that of the late 1600s, said.

After waiting a minute or two - there was a chair from which he observed FTJ's henchman – secretary – Jefferson finally came out of his office.

"Dr. Horrible should be – oh, hello. I wasn't notified that ye had arrived yet." There was a paused, at which point Jefferson sent a menacing glare to his henchman, before turning back to Dr Horrible.

"Come in." He gestured politely and turned back menacingly to his henchman one last time as he closed the door.

"So, Dr Horrible, sit. Bad Horse had some business to attend to, ergo, as second in command, I will be informing you about your authority and the rules, etc. It's quite standard and necessary paperwork. You understand, don't you?" Horrible nodded. "Excellent." He pulled out a large and thick leather covered book from his drawer.

"Now then," he said bending over again to get a stained yellow folder, "you'll have to read these." He handed the blond man a couple of papers tied together with paperclips.

"Do I, uh - have to sign anything?" Horrible looked through the papers, randomly flipping the pages and scanning the words. Jefferson frowned, he stopped shuffling his paperwork to look up perplexed.

"Certainly not. Even if we had you sign some sort of agreement, as villains, it would be expected for you to break such an accord." He looked back down, finding the bookmark he turned the page to it. "At least that's what happened last time," he said, aggravated.

Dr. Horrible didn't ask. It was better he didn't know.

"Now according to our files, you had a blog where you would discuss your various evil plans, new technology as well as your personal relationship with an unnamed "she"." Jefferson casually asked, he picked up a feather and dipped it in a small bottle of ink set on his desk.

"You know about that?" Dr. Horrible ask tentatively.

"Of course we do," Jefferson smiled. He loved being the one in charge, the one to go to, the one who knows it all... "At the reception of your last application we did our research. Preparation is the greatest of all allies."

"Right." His facial muscles twitched. They knew, they knew, they knew- how much did they know? Did he ever mention Penny's name? Did they know it was an accident? That he couldn't even fire a gun on time?

"We had Dead Bowie contact you to get more information. His pseudonym was..." Jefferson looked down to his papers, "...dead_not_sleeping. Personally I thought it was an awful name, terribly obvious when you thought about it. I told them, the man is an evil scientist, he won't reveal to us his personal life." He laughed. Dr. Horrible nervously laughed along.

He was screwed. Horrible tried to remember anything dangerous he might have said on his blog. ... He never mentioned her name, did he? No, no he didn't. Wait, did he... No but – balls! He said Hammer was dating the girl of his dreams! Balls! How could he be so stupid, he might as well have given them her address!...

"And I was right!" Jefferson continued. "You mentioned your application to the ELE but when questioned about your love-interest you never said her name... hold on," he read something written. Horrible's heart raced. "It seems you did say something about her dating your nemesis... But Johnny Snow wasn't dating anyone so-"

"Wait what?"

"Johnny Snow, your arch-nemesis, wasn't dating anyone when you said on your blog that you had introduced the girl of your dreams to your arch-nemesis."

"Jonny Snow is not my neme- I mean he is. He is my arch-nemesis. My archness of all nemeses... Him and Captain Hammer, also, sometimes..." He stumbled nervously over his words. "Just, you know for the record. But – but Snow is in front of the Hammer."


	4. Chapter 4

Part 4

Disclaimer: I don't own Dr Horrible's Sing Along Blog, but if ever asked I would love to work for the guy who does.

Beta: Big thanks to donteatacowman who is an always grammar crazy buddy =)

A/N: Maybe you didn't undertand me before. I want you to read this, enjoy it and then I want you to write me a damn review. It won't take long. I know you're reading this! Write me a review! Please?

A/N: For anyone who had their own character built up for the ELE members, I hope you approve of mine.

* * *

"Now then, here is a list of forms to be filled on various occasions for whatever you will do – you may find it to be quite useful. Your office is still under construction so you'll have to remain at your previous work space for now. The laboratories are on the second floor and there are compulsory meetings for all members held there as well every fortnight, the next of which will be held this coming Wednesday."

Billy winced internally. _Laundry day._

"At said meetings, future plots, plans and projects will be shared and discussed; reports on which are to be personally handled by myself. Is that understood, Doctor?"

"Sure, Jefferson."

"Mr. Jefferson." He glared at Dr. Horrible. "Call me Mister Jefferson. If you don't mind." It wasn't a question.

"Alright." Dr. Horrible gently bit the end of his tongue.

"Now, as for your first victim..." Jefferson quickly resumed explaining bureaucracy and questioning. This question, though, was anything but mundane for the league's newest member. "Dead Bowie wanted to know if he could have her body."

Dr. Horrible blinked, his eyes hidden behind his goggles.

_Have her?... Penny... Penny's body?_

He kept up his appearance and, except for a slight change in his pitch when he spoke again, which lasted for half a second, he seemed perfectly calm. His mind, however, grabbled with the idea, replaying the phrase over and over again.

_They wanted to use her – Penny. Penny was dead, she died – she's gone – she died and she's gone, forever... _

In his own mind, time froze; nothing else could possibly be happening after this bombshell. Jefferson, though, only waited for 32 seconds before receiving an answer of some sort.

"Why?" He cleared his throat. "Why does he wuah-waant her body. For?"

Jefferson raised an eyebrow, perplexed by Dr Horrible's stammering tone. He chalked it up to being nervous – the man was meeting him, a renowned evil villain of great proportions, for the first time.

"I'm not sure. I think it was for one of his experiments."

"Experiments?"

"Perhaps. He and Professor Normal were working on some sort of project; you'd have to ask them about it." Dr. Horrible sat for a moment. He became awkwardly aware of his red lab coat and large goggles.

"Don't you have some sort of file on it?" He glanced around, there were cabinets everywhere, probably filed with plans and useless paperwork.

"Yes, well... They've yet to complete theirs..," he mumbled uncertain. "Now then, if you have any more questions? No?" he answered for the villain. "Excellent, we'll be in contact when your office is ready. Until then you're free to use the laboratory, you have your own of course, make sure to read those instructions for your forms and I'll see you Wednesday." Jefferson pasted on a smile for an instant before returning to his papers and gesturing Dr Horrible to the doors. Dr Horrible stood and left – feeling none too insulted.

Jefferson's secretary was still buried in paperwork and busy on his old-fashioned typewriter (Jefferson must have something against computers, Dr. Horrible guessed).

The hall was empty and, with one melancholy sigh, Dr Horrible made his way to the elevator. He pressed the button and took a look at the files Jefferson – Mr. Jefferson – had given him.

"You're not really gonna use those, are you?" The voice came out of – seemingly – nowhere and truly spooked him. It was female. It was from the woman who was perched at the window sill nearby who was staring at him dubiously.

"What?" he asked back, recovering from the flinch he assumed his goggled had hidden.

"Jefferson's always trying to steal other people's plots and whenever he can he tries to play it off as paperwork. No one's been dumb enough to actually do it though, except for Balmy Blauman and he was killed." It was Tie Die.

"Well of course I wasn't," he scoffed. "I'm an evil genius, so..!" He raised both eyebrows trying to make her suggestion as absurd as possible. He smiled a bit, now more anxious than ever for the elevator to come.

"Yeah right," she scoffed back but looked back outside, utterly uninterested in Dr. Horrible. Dr. Horrible felt a sting of distaste and was very prepared to reply with a witty comeback when the elevator chirped in.


	5. Chapter 5

Part 5

Beta: of course **donteatacowman** who is a totally crazy about puntuations and whatnot and **msmanuscript** (for a sentence or two)  
**Forgotten Credit:** So by the time I wrote and put on the first part of Penny's Blog I had completely forgotten where the idea sprung from. Where? From n_e_star who wrote Dr Horrible Fic: Penny Cabllus's Daily Diary. It was only one part and it was a diary not a blog and aside from that it doesn't have the same direction as this story, however it was probably the original (along with others) inspiration for this fic and I had said that I would credit them. So, I credit them for the prompt: n-e-star. livejournal .com/ 119483 .html

A/N: Sorry it took so long to update and it might take a while for more – school's started up again. But I'd like to thank anyone and everyone for reading and commenting and say this about the plot to come: I have plans which I hope will wet your appetite for even more – I promise it'll pick up soon. (if you got that *high five*)

* * *

The elevator was as small as ever. Dr. Horrible decided to visit the lab, second floor. He wanted to know what Dead Bowie wanted with... with her body.

_Don't think about_, he scolded himself. _You're Dr. Horrible. You want to know what Dead Bowie and Professor Normal's latest experiment is. Nothing personal._

The doors parted and he was immediately faced with a fork in the road. The elevator opened up to a dead end, there was a corridor leading to the left and another to the right and in front of him was a wall. Both hallways were plainly coloured and dark but the elevator light was bright. He frowned – why wouldn't they keep the lights on? Probably to help with the mystique, being the HQ of evil and all.

He stepped forward and a sensor of some sort must have detected his presence 'cause the lights came on.

"Horrible?" A voice said.

Dr. Horrible raised his eyebrow and looked around slowly before answering cautiously, "Yes?..."

"Have you uh – have you come to check the lab out?" a second voice said – this one with some sort of accent, maybe British.

"Uh..." He guessed there must be a camera and a microphone hidden somewhere, and a speaker too. "Yes." It was still odd though.

"Good then just, just come in." The super villain glanced down both corridors; he had memorized the blue prints of the ELE headquarters (he had wanted to try and break in once, but got side-tracked). He knew where to go, but to keep up appearances – never let on more than you know, as the saying goes – he should act ignorant about the whole thing. He raised a hand, pointed to the right and waited to be corrected.

"Yeah that's the way – no wait is it? Let's uh... my right is your left uh.. how's the...er," The second accented voice stammered.

"It's on your left!" An annoyed voice passively stated – the first one.

When Dr. Horrible finally got to the lab, the doors opened up after a small delay. Standing in front of him was Professor Normal – the first voice. His strange eye wear couldn't hide his risen eyebrow.

He smiled cruelly. "Come in."

Billy gulped, but Dr. Horrible walked right past the villain, admiring the lab. It was truly amazing what kind of stuff you could have when you didn't obey government policies. Dead Bowie was sitting at a table – just a regular meeting or kitchen-like table – surrounded by a few boards with scribbling on them. No cool new formula's or anything useful – someone had drawn a stick figure singing or dancing – he couldn't quite tell if it was a girl or guy...

"Ah!" Dead Bowie stood back up somehow surprised at the doctor's entrance. "So, you've finally joined us, here. Nice."

Dr Horrible just kept staring at him, glaring was hard with goggles.

"I assume Jefferson told you about our experimentation?" Professor Normal asked, taking a seat at the table.

"Not quite," he took a seat, leaving Dead Bowie to also sit back down. "He mentioned you needed my permission for something."

"Yes, well," Professor Normal continued, "since Leika Fury became extremely aggressive when her victim was opened up, we thought it best to make you aware of our proceedings."

"We lost Balmy that day," Dead Bowie reminisced. "Nice guy; wouldn't have lasted long anyways."

"Regardless, we would like to use that Shelter Girl's body for experimentation."

Billy bit down, clenching his jaw. _Shelter Girl? Use her body. You want to use her body for 'experimentation'?! She's not a lab rat! She was probably against animal experimentation!_ He swallowed.

Dr. Horrible huffed a breath, mulling the idea over and calming his nerves. "What sort of experiment?"

Dead Bowie grinned and exchanged a malevolent glance with his co-villain, whose poker face remained terrifyingly cold if not totally freaky.

_I could probably learn something from him..._ Billy pushed the thought away.

"Bowie and I have begun theorization with respect to the possibility of recuperating cells, organs and other such organic forms from their previous unresponsive states to one of a more lively exhibition."

Dr. Horrible frowned, sucking every liquid from his mouth until his throat was dry. He twitched his lips, forcing an easy smile and calmly set his arms on the table in front of himself, nervously squeezing his gloved fingers with his other hand.

"He means we're like, you know, trying to bring the dead back to life," Bowie re-explained. Professor Normal ignored Bowie's grin and kept his eyes fixed on Dr. Horrible.

"Ah..." Dr. Horrible answered with a nod, although he had already understood Normal's explanation. "Well, how much theorization have you done?"

"Phase 3." Dead Bowie instantly answered. "There are 4 phases."

"We've already had some success bringing a few smaller specimens back to life. _Columba livia_ to be specific."

Bowie inclined his head pensively and acknowledged what, as an evil genius, Dr. Horrible already knew, "Pigeon,"

"They're quite plentiful."

"Side-effects were minimal, but, you know, over all I'd say it was a smashing success."

"Indeed."

"So you want to try it out on a human..." _On Penny..._ His heart ached at the thought of Penny, his Penny, being poked and prodded like a human guinea pig. Penny, who never did a thing... Penny hadn't deserved to die. She was... she was everything good in the world... and she was gone...

"Correct," Professor Normal answered. Billy gulped.

It was a selfish thought, he'd only brought her trouble... maybe he should just allow her to rest in peace... but... it was Penny...

"So..." Dead Bowie leaned forward, staring intently at him. He grinned, pulling the ace from his sleeve: power of persuasion. Dr. Horrible knew this quite well; he had idolized the Evil League of Evil for so long he could probably write a book on it. "We believe it would be best to test it out on that pretty red bird – fresh meat, you know?"

_Fresh meat._ The idea was enough to have Billy pull out the nearest blunt object and stab the supposedly dead man repeatedly until the thought crept back into its miserable neuron and died.

Dr. Horrible tilted his head, stretching a few stiff muscles and looking away from Bowie for a moment, trying to gather up enough patience to correctly think over this situation, to figure out what was best, for him, for his future... Not Penny... There was nothing Billy wanted more than to bring Penny back, but...

"Dr. Horrible?" Professor Normal spoke up. "We were hoping to begin soon."

"Yeah, the sooner the best, ya see. Otherwise too much dies off." His smile widened mischievously. "It's a shame that freeze ray of yours ain't up to shape." That, Dr. Horrible, instantly took as a challenge. He straightened and furrowed his brow, insulted.

"I'll have you know that _my_ freeze ray is in complete working order. It's capable of now holding onto a single moment for over 175 hours." He might have spent a few days and nights locked in his laboratory perfecting it, ignoring his glorification in the press and... and everything else. Focussing his entire being, all his energy, on fixing his freeze ray so that it would... it wouldn't break like...

"That so?"

"Yeah!" He scoffed.

"Good, then you should bring it over right away – be much better than using dry ice. Frozen Dead Gal'll fair better that way."

"What?"

"So it's agreed then?" Professor Normal stated, looking at his accomplices.

Dr. Horrible blinked, confused for a moment. He took a quick breath and decided; looking back to Dead Bowie who still smiled darkly, he said, "I'll have it over within the hour."


End file.
